And A Bottle Of Rum
by Kiara-Zzyopen
Summary: BtVS X Pirates of the Caribbean. The journey to World’s End brings… unexpected results.


**DISCLAIMER**: Disney own Pirates, Mutant Enemy owns Buffy.

**A/N**: Happy New Year everyone! Hope '07 is even better than '06!

**And A Bottle Of Rum- by Kiara**

Elizabeth watched the ever static horizon from the port side of their new ship. It was smaller than any of the others she'd been on, sleeker, and it cut through the never-ending waves faster. She had seen no land for two days and certainly no 'world's end', yet here she was, looking at the same sight that she'd been watching since they set off. At the sound of footsteps behind her, she looked over her shoulder quickly.

"You've been avoiding me." He stated quietly.

The denial immediately sprang to her lips. "No, Will… I was…" Guilty? Confused? Ashamed?

"Why? Tell me." Will ordered a little more harshly than he'd intended. But he'd seen her, his fiancé, kissing Jack, he had a right to be harsh.

"I can't, I…" Once again she trailed off.

"Elizabeth," He started more softly, surprised by the tears in her eyes. She was usually so tough, though maybe not when she was going to break his heart. "Tell me, please."

There was a long pause as she gathered her thoughts. "It was my fault. I… tricked Jack onto staying on the Pearl."

He was a little surprised- he'd been expecting her to break off their engagement for two days, but he hadn't been expecting confessions of trickery. "What?"

"The Kraken didn't want the Pearl, it wanted him and it would have killed all of us to get to him. So I handcuffed him to the mast." Elizabeth admitted quietly. She decided not to mention just how she'd gone about tricking Jack, Will didn't need to know what she had done to achieve her task. She couldn't even look at him as she admitted her piracy as Jack had called it; she just kept on looking out to sea.

"You betrayed him?" He said flatly.

"No, I… Yes."

"Betrayed by a kiss." Will murmured. "How poetic."

She swung round quickly and studied him. "You saw us. You saw us and you didn't say anything."

"Neither did you." He countered.

"I was trying to protect you and the rest of the crew!"

"By sentencing a man to death? A friend, no less." Will was surprised at the lack of anger, the lack of disappointment he felt. Why was somebody always left behind?

"Friend? He sent you onto the Dutchman to die and tricked me into finding his stupid chest. You had a bloody sword fight with him just three days ago! And then he leaves us and rows away to try and save his own skin!"

"But he came back." Will interrupted. For now, he and Jack were on the same side, fighting for the same cause, although Will wasn't really sure what that was anymore.

Elizabeth gripped the rail tightly. That had been playing on her conscience since they had set sail. "I'm sorry. I feel horrible about it, is that what you want to hear? I just couldn't stand the thought of the Kraken taking the crew down to the bottom of the ocean because Jack was too scared to face it. I couldn't stand the thought of it hurting you."

"I didn't think you were capable of that." Will said evenly after a pause.

"Me neither." She'd sacrificed a man for the sake of her future with Will; they could have tried something else, given him a chance somehow. "I don't want us to die, Will. I want us to get married and have children and get old together."

"At the cost of Jack's life?" He regretted it as soon as he said it; he wanted all those things too. He still wanted them, even after what she'd told him.

"I thought so, at the time… He called me a pirate."

"Me too." He leant against the rail next to her, the two of them looking out over the seemingly endless waters.

"We will find him, won't we?"

He attempted a smile. "We're not going to World's End for nothing."

"I am sorry, you know. I never meant to hurt you." Elizabeth said after a pause. More than anything she just wanted to hear that it was okay, or that it would be; that once they had found Jack they could return to Port Royal (hopefully not as criminals) and get married as they were meant to.

"I know." It didn't escape his notice that she did not apologize for deserting Jack, but he'd done that once or twice. Although he didn't have to resort to sexual favours, thank God. He slowly slid his hand over to cover hers. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her look down surprised at the contact and then the relief flooded her face.

"We're not going to give up, Elizabeth. Jack's not perfect, nowhere near, but we'll find him even if we have to search for a yea-"

Without warning the ship lurched to a halt sending the crew flying. Elizabeth fell onto the wooden deck, her head thumping off the smooth surface and the air pushed from her lungs as Will got thrown on top of her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, pushing himself up onto his forearms and attempting to shake his hair out of his eyes so he could see for himself.

Elizabeth nodded breathlessly. She reached up to sweep his hair back for him and then froze as the realization of their not-so-proper position occurred to her.

"Ah-hem."

Will snapped back to reality and helped her up, glad that it were Gibbs who interrupted them rather than someone else.

"Captain Barbosa is waiting." Was all he said before leaving.

"Come on." Will said, still holding her hand, all earlier animosity forgotten.

Barbosa was standing at the bow of the ship, looking at the blank air in front of him. "Well you best get going if you want to find the help you so desire."

"There's nothing there." Elizabeth said confused. Where exactly were they meant to find this help?

"On the contrary, my dear; there is more in this particular spot than you can imagine. Take a look."

"Have we run aground?" Will asked as Elizabeth moved forward to look over the edge.

"Will!"

He ran over and looked down. The carving of a mermaid which had proudly adorned the front of the ship had splintered into tiny pieces having been the initial point of contact with whatever it was they hit although the ship itself seemed to be in one piece.

"What did we hit?"

"That." Barbosa pointed to the space directly in front of them. At first it looked like nothing more than thin air, but as they watched what looked like purple lightening streaked through the space.

"Welcome to World's End, children."

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When they landed, they were in the middle of nowhere. There was no civilisation as far as they could see, just sand and rocks. Oh, and a strange looking, large yellow box-thing surrounded by people that were looking at a massive hole in the ground.

"Where in Lucifer's name…" Gibbs started as he rose to his feet.

"I suppose this is World's End." Elizabeth said looking around somewhat sceptically.

"I thought we already got to World's End." Ragetti said only to get shushed by and impatient Pintel.

"The portal!" Will remembered, and they all turned to see if they could see it.

"It's sealed itself." Will murmured when he found nothing. "Until we're ready to return."

"It was quite dramatic really." Ragetti mused of their journey.

Pintel sighed in a long-suffering way. "And you were expecting what exactly from the end of the bleeding world?"

"It's not always that dramatic." A new, unfamiliar voice chipped in.

The group of pirates turned sharply, coming face to face with a petite blond woman standing in front of a fairly large group of mainly young girls with a disturbing amount of weaponry. The blond smiled in a deceptively sweet way (marred only by the shiny red axe in her hands) before continuing,

"Now who the hell are you and why are you crashing on our post-apocalyptic party?"

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END


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